Tom Beard Former Executive VP

2 Sep 2007

Indian Manufacturing: A View From The Shop Floor

A recent visit to Indian metalworking shops reveals a nation poised to elevate its position in global manufacturing.

15 Jun 2004

New Turning Center Design Aims At Maximum Turning And Milling Rates

Much of machine tool development is based on an incremental approach to design. In such cases, each "new" design is more a refinement of the previous generation of proven technology than a reinvention of the machine type and its purpose. With Mori Seiki's new NL series of turning centers, however, the builder was

CAD/CAM 15 Dec 2002

The Software Around The Machine

Walk into Mori Seiki's Digital Technology Laboratory (DTL) in Sacramento, California, and you might think you've instead wandered into a West Coast extension of the United Nations. The facility is dedicated to software development and engineering for the machine tool builder worldwide, and the makeup of the staff certainly speaks to diverse needs of a global market.

1 May 2002

Learning Online

Internet-based training provides a new tool for metalworking managers looking to build the technical knowledge of their employees. (2002 Guide To Metalworking On The Internet)

Workforce Development 1 May 2002

What Do Online Marketplaces Really Deliver To Job Shops?

Online custom manufacturing marketplaces really can deliver a stream of RFQs to metalworking job shops. The question is, how do job shops actually convert the opportunity into real business? (2002 Guide To Metalworking On The Internet)

1 Apr 2000

Changes Yet To Come

When the market value of Internet router maker Cisco Systems passed that of Microsoft a few weeks ago, some marked the event as emblematic of the “post-PC” era to which we are headed. This is not to diminish the benefits that PCs have brought to our individual desktops, but rather to note that the value of stand-alone computing pales in comparison to the power of networking on a global scale, made possible by the Internet.

1 Apr 2000

Buying Online, Part Two

You may recall a few months back when I related a personal experience with e-commerce in this space and asked for your thoughts on how it might work in the metalworking community. Thanks very much to all who replied.

1 Mar 2000

Things Change

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things can change. So I read with great interest the results of the recent World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey.

5 Jan 2000

Words From The Top

I recently had an interesting discussion with an executive who’d come to newfound insight on power and influence. He’d given up a very high position in a sizeable company to follow a more entrepreneurial path, and he was now working in a very small startup enterprise with a largely collaborative and egalitarian decision making process.

3 Jan 2000

Are You Going To Buy Online?

I wanted to buy a computer for my daughter. So we went to four different stores and looked at all the models on display to determine which was the best deal.

1 Dec 1999

Teamwork, Creativity And Leadership

What's more important, teamwork creativity or leadership? Bob Lutz, former president of Chrysler Corporation, expressed some interesting thoughts on that and other subjects at the recent fall meeting of AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology. Lutz holds a variety of refreshing and occasionally cranky opinions on management that can make mincemeat of the more trendy views of the day.

1 Nov 1999

Changing Some Things With The Times

I recently had the opportunity to visit several of Germany's leading machine tool builders. It was interesting to see how these companies are dealing with recent challenges, yet maintaining their finer traditions.